[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1494]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MUSLIM REFUGEE EXECUTIVE ORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, just hours after the President's misguided, 
counterproductive, and objectively anti-American Muslim ban was signed, 
we saw the effects. Chaos erupted at airports around the country, 
including in my own district at Chicago O'Hare. Green card holders were 
held in legal limbo. Refugees fleeing violence and persecution were 
sent away before boarding U.S.-bound flights, even after enduring years 
of thorough screening and vetting.
  Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have turned away 
innocent people seeking safety in our country. In 1939, the German 
ocean liner St. Louis Manifest and its 937 Jewish passengers, almost 
all Jewish refugees, were turned away from the Port of Miami and sent 
back to Europe. Of those passengers, 254 were murdered in the 
Holocaust.
  We all bear a responsibility to learn from the evils of history so 
that we will never make the same mistakes again. It is our turn to step 
up and fight to protect the values of our Nation and ensure that we are 
on the right side of history. Because who can possibly forget the photo 
of Alan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian boy who was washed up on a Turkish 
beach. Or Omran Daqneesh, the 5-year-old Syrian boy covered in blood as 
he waited for emergency care after being rescued from a building in 
Aleppo hit by an airstrike. These devastating images have become 
symbols of the refugee crisis. We cannot let them symbolize our 
inaction, too.
  The President's executive order creating this Muslim ban undermines 
the foundational ideas of this country, a Nation founded by immigrants 
with the intention of providing freedom, opportunity, and a better life 
to all who seek it. Making good on one of his most extreme campaign 
promises, the President signed this order with little or no input from 
his own national security advisers nor from specialists at the State 
Department, Homeland Security, or the Justice Department, once again 
signaling his strong and continued dismissal of facts, evidence, and 
advice from seasoned experts.
  Contrary to the President's misguided belief, Islam is not the issue, 
and his decision to go after Muslims instead of terrorists only fuels 
our enemies' propaganda. The President's Muslim ban undermines our 
national security goals and is counterproductive in the fight against 
terrorism. The ban jeopardizes our strategic partnerships with allies 
in the Middle East who are on the very front lines in the fight against 
ISIS. Asylum seekers and foreign nationals have provided invaluable 
assistance to our military and diplomats in a variety of roles 
overseas. I agree with Senators McCain and Graham, who said this ban 
will become ``a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.'' 
Ultimately, this order is more likely to increase terrorist recruitment 
than to deter it.
  Outrage over this ban extends far beyond national security and 
counterterrorism experts. For example, we are seeing sharp criticism 
from business leaders across the country, including CEOs of companies 
like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Airbnb. They recognize that 
immigrants play a huge role in fostering our Nation's entrepreneurial 
spirit, advancing new technology, creating startups, all which spur 
innovation and economic activity across the country.
  Universities and academics across the country are also grappling with 
what the President's restrictions mean for their students and for 
scholarship and academia more broadly. Students benefit from the 
inclusion of all world views, which provide us with a deeper 
understanding of science, the arts, economic policy, national security, 
and all other aspects of our society.
  Let's be clear. My own city of Chicago has been and will continue to 
be home to an immigrant and refugee community from all around the 
world, and we are forever enriched and grateful for the contributions 
that make this country great. I, along with the majority of American 
people who took to the streets to make their opposition heard loud and 
clear, demand that the administration rescind this shameful order 
before even more grave and lasting damage is done.
  Let's call a spade a spade. Despite the White House's insistence that 
this is not a Muslim ban, the policy laid out by the President will 
almost exclusively impact Muslims. In fact, the President went so far 
as to point out that this administration will prioritize the admittance 
for Christian refugees. If this is not a religious test, then what is?
  Refugees of all faiths, creeds, race, and national origins have 
looked to America as a beacon of freedom. So long as this ban is in 
effect, that light shines less brightly. We will not etch a new 
inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Instead, her golden 
lamp will continue to welcome those who are tired, poor, and yearning 
to be free, just as it always has.

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